Donald Trump is Archie Bunker and an un-Chance the Gardener, rolled into one *UPDATED*

I’m still trying to get a handle on Donald Trump’s unexpected success. This post, therefore, isn’t about whether Republicans should or should not vote for him. It is, instead, an effort to analyze why voters from both parties are drawn to him. Because I believe that Trump is essentially a pop culture figure, my analysis today looks at him through a pop culture lens.

My starting point is the 1970s, which was a turning point in America culture, much as we are in a turning point today. Back then, the Depression and WWII generation had hit middle age and older, and the Baby Boom generation was starting to control society.

Into this transitional era came All In The Family and Archie Bunker. The show’s creator, Norman Lear, and his stable of liberal writers, envisioned Archie Bunker as a truly malevolent character whom they could ridicule to comedic effect, while simultaneously destroying the “primitive” shibboleths of the Greatest Generation.

Lear and his cohorts were surprised and chagrined when Archie, instead of being a reviled figure, became one of the most popular characters in TV history. If you read about All In The Family’s success, the conventional wisdom is that Carroll O’Connor was such a brilliant actor and decent human being that he imbued Archie with a humanity that appealed to viewers no matter what words they put into his mouth. That conventional wisdom, of course, comes from Leftists.

I’d argue that Archie’s appeal was a lot more simple than that. Archie may have been crude and insensitive in the words given him, but the audience quickly figured out that he was the one who spoke to old-fashioned values and practical common sense. The show didn’t destroy the old ideas. Through Archie, it gave them a voice.

Or least that was the message received by audience members from an older generation that hadn’t been mentally corrupted by the Vietnam War protests and the Leftist takeover of the education establishment. Back in the mid-1970s, that part of the audience was huge. Where his Leftist creators saw a Luddite buffoon, the audience saw a truth speaker.

Trump is also a truth speaker for Americans sick unto death of being told that their every utterance is somehow racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, fat shaming, cultural appropriation, or whatever other cultural Marxist form of censorship is on the Leftists’ radar.

A perfect example of Trump’s appealing truth-speaking is his instantly infamous Cinco de Mayo tweet:

The tweet doesn’t have a racist word in it, but it had barely appeared on the internet before the usual race hustlers on the Left castigated it as racist. On the right, those who dislike Trump fully understood that it wasn’t racist, but nevertheless castigated it as a dog whistle to Trump’s racist supporters. What it really was, of course, was something that Trump has been doing to such great effect since day one — it was a full frontal attack against political correctness.

Americans have witnessed the rise of the latest front in the political correctness battle: “Cultural appropriation.” Under this brand new rule, people who are not members of the white, Judeo-Christian culture are now barred from engaging in any way with cultures that aren’t white, Judeo-Christian cultures.

While a Mexican person may speak English and embrace the uniquely First World, Western tradition of American education and capitalism, someone who wears a sombrero to a party, listens to mariachi music, or eats a taco is engaged in an impermissible, imperialistic, condescending act of cultural appropriation. And while an entirely black cast can get an unprecedented number of Tony Award nominations for their rap homage to America’s very white, very Christian Founding Fathers, God forbid a white person should wear cornrows or dreadlocks in his or her hair.

Normal people, those not bathed in the toxic stew of Marxism and censorship, understand that motives and intentions matter. If you are obviously showing affection and admiration for another culture, you’re not doing anything wrong. Moreover, if you want to add a piece of that culture to America’s larger culture, that’s not an insult, it’s a compliment. To be castigated as an imperialistic racist thief is ridiculous.

This “normal person” worldview means that, when Trump ignores the “cultural appropriation” charge and boldly says, “I love Hispanics and their food, especially their food as blended into the American culture,” millions of people around America cheer. What’s going through their head isn’t “That’ll show those lousy Mexicans.” Instead, it’s “Hell yeah! That’s the normal way to do things. Trump’s tweet is neither racist nor a dog whistle. It’s how all of us were raised to love and want to add to the American melting pot before the lunatics took over the asylum.”

Looking at Trump through the Archie Bunker filter, it seems clear that, to those Americans fighting the cognitive dissonance of life in Leftist land, Trump is a truth-speaker who blows up Leftist censorship and thought manipulation.

Having said that, even if one admires Trump’s disdain for the thought police, what is one to make of Trump’s endlessly shifting political views?

First of all, there are, thankfully, a few things that Trump seems to believe in no matter what. Thus, he seems strong on the Second Amendment, for which I am grateful.

Just as Charles I of England understood that Protestant efforts to destroy the Anglican church hierarchy would inevitably reach up to and destroy the throne (“no bishop, no king”), we all need to understand that no Second Amendment means no First Amendment. If you don’t have the Second to defend the First, all you’ve got are meaningless words on paper, and a government that can quickly shift from being overbearing to being openly tyrannical with nothing to stop it.

Other than guns and a sort of inchoate fondness for America that’s lacking on the Left, most of Trump’s other issues are malleable, to say the least. Today he wants to raise taxes. Tomorrow he won’t. Yesterday he was about building a wall. Today his position paper supports amnesty. For every issue, he’s got at least two opinions, and he never apologizes for any of them, let alone for changing his mind as rapidly as others change their shirts. Yet he’s forgiven for flip-flops that, in retrospect, make John Kerry’s 2004 run the essence of stability.

What’s that all about?

So here’s my other idea about Trump’s quixotic popularity: In Jerzy Kosinski’s Being There, Chance the Gardener is a genuine blank upon whom people project their beliefs and their desires. I believe I may have been the first to point out that Obama’s anodyne statements during the 2008 campaign made him a Chance the Gardner political figure. Because he kept carefully hidden his hard Left attitudes, he was the perfect foil for everyone’s own ideas.

Trump the Opinionated isn’t Chance at all. Instead, he is Chance’s mirror image. Think of Trump as one of those giant billboards with rotating advertisements. Wait long enough and the billboard will advertise some product you may want to buy. With Trump, the non-stop stream of words, ideas, and often-conflicting opinions creates the promise that there is something there for everyone.

UPDATE:Robert Arvantis is correct that this video goes a long way to explaining Trump. Condell is unusually adept at verbalizing these things, but I know others share his thoughts:

Share this:

“This post..isn’t about whether Republicans should or should not vote for him.”
Alas, it always is exactly about just that.
You vote for Trump, or else you vote for hillary.
You say you won’t vote? Then you let the idiot next door decide.
Trump is bad? Sure, but he’s a lone idiot. Hillary is not only worse, she’s part of a gang with an agenda deeply inimical to America.
Pat Condell has his own delightful take on this: “I vote AGAINST you…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjYLWadz5Yc&feature=em-subs_digest

Matt_SE

If you want to vote for a vile liar like Trump, you will be responsible for everything he does. I’m not willing to take that chance. I reject any responsibility for his nomination.

RobertArvanitis

As do I, Matt. Trump is driven by his ego. On any specific issue he could go either way.
But hillary is a documented, systematic liar.
She has already damaged our national security with her private server, destruction of Libya, betrayal of Americans and all the rest.
hillary lies for an evil agenda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77j6uBHI
Trump MAY do SOME harm. She CERTAINLY will do GREAT damage. There is no alternative.
(Unless we take an apocalyptic view, that America must be plunged through the cleansing fires etc.)

ymarsakar

“She has already damaged our national security with her private server, destruction of Libya, betrayal of Americans and all the rest.”

Then get rid of her, permanently.

If people aren’t willing to do that, that is THEIR sin and weakness. Going Galt isn’t about bending Knee to Society’s Choice A or Choice B, do this or else false dichotomy.

RobertArvanitis

Fair enough ymarsakar.
When the apocalypse is at last the only option, I’ll be to your left and slightly forward, since I’m left-handed and that gives better coverage.
Then praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

ymarsakar

For Christians and certain prophets, the apocalypse isn’t a myth. Nor is it ultimately about the Earth falling out of its orbit. To Germans, and Argentines and Cubans, even if their world isn’t falling off, it’s still not a good slope. So bad things can still happen without it being the Rapture.

Historically, there are all kinds of prophets sent out to tell people they are wrong. People just refuse to listen. I have a really good comprehension of that now a days.

If people want to be saved, they’re going to have to stop doing evil and, yes, in the Christian sense “repent”. And not just try to offload their responsibility unto politics or some other made up BS. That’s not going to do anything. I didn’t think it would do anything even in 2007, given what the power of evil and the Left were as revealed to me and by my methods.

RobertArvanitis

I’m a Christian ymarsakar, and yes, it’s an old story. People always forget the truth until it’s too late.
So does this mean you’ll cover 2 o’clock – 5 o’clock?

ymarsakar

I’ll probably be training the kids and women on how to kill people via stealth. I’m more of a cadre instructor and teacher than a front line fighter. I’m sure parker over at Neo Neo is worth 10 of me in a gunfight.

Matt_SE

So you subscribe to Hope and Change 2.0: Hoping something will change. There’s no evidence to base that on.

RobertArvanitis

No. I choose the lesser evil.
On available evidence I vote AGAINST hillary.
Until such time as the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed.

Notmybrotherskeeper2

You’ll of course take notice that these all-too self-righteous, sanctimonious “conservatives”, like poster Matt_SE here, are certainly quick to judge and condemn those of us, who through no fault of our own have been placed in compromising positions, and have merely resided ourselves to the only possible option in which we feel stands even a chance of keeping a devastating Hillary presidency from becoming a reality, yet simultaneously they conveniently offer no alternative. Only how others are obviously horrible people for even the consideration of such a “conservative blasphemy”.

If I had even an ounce of respect for their stance(s) before, I’m surely left with zero now. Far as I’m concerned, at this point you’re either pro-America, or pro-Hillary.

Cecillia

Sad to write, your words pretty much sum up the abysmal and dire straits that we are in ……“at this point you’re either pro-America, or pro-Hillary.”

Notmybrotherskeeper2

Hey Cecillia, good morning/afternoon, ma’lady.

Yes, indeed.
And, as if the current political climate weren’t already outlandishly insane enough, we’ve got a segment of the population, “supposedly” on the same side, working tirelessly and purposely looking to sabotage what is seemingly the only attainable avenue in which to dismantle/defeat Clinton.
Those and their agenda/objective, of whom both I dubiously hold in suspicion, don’t, or won’t, understand that this thing isn’t about Trump NEARLY as much as it’s about Clinton, who evidently also appear to be MUCH more concerned about keeping Donald Trump OUT out of the Oval Office than offering Hillary Clinton an unabated, direct path to it???

[SMH]I just don’t get it. All I know is I’m as sad, frustrated, angry, dismayed, and disgusted as I’ve ever been.
Ohhh well……I suppose I’ll just hope (and pray) that more people [miraculously]become less enchanted and motivated by all the wrong things come November.

Cecillia

Good Afternoon, NMBK! Sorry, I could not answer sooner. You have every right to feel as such.
We are living through desperate and unprecedented times; and realistically, it will worsen as we near November. Certainly, there are always times of tumult; but, the current situations are extraordinary as that nothing makes sense. Since 2008, there has been a determined effort to turn everything upside down – and we are still being bombarded by one travesty after another. Hopefully, there will be some kind (even a scintilla) of enlightenment that will sweep across the uninformed; we can only pray. In the meantime, it’s a torturous waiting game.

MDR

Only children and conservatives think they have to speak the truth all the time. Or, to quote Donald Trump: “I’m conservative, but I’m smart too!”

Matt_SE

Trump is as conservative as Boehner is.

MDR

He is more conservative than Mitt Romney.

Matt_SE

And yet got 12k fewer votes in the Nebraska primary than Romney, without having any formal opposition still in the race. Ouch.

MDR

Face it buddy, conservatism is going the way of the dodo. And rightfully so. The Bushes have brought doom to this country with their globalism and their unnecessary wars. Obama has only finished what the Bushes started. Conservatives are complicit to the Bushes’ failures. Conservatives held the Bushes in high regard, while they should have tarred and feathered them. And now it’s too late. Conservatives have failed this nation, so they deserve to go. Bye bye conservatism, welcome nationalism/patriotism.

Matt_SE

The Bushes weren’t conservatives; none of them. But you Trumpkins aren’t conservatives either, so it’s no wonder you don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s like getting religious advice from an atheist.

MDR

Yeah but did you protest the Bushes’ madness? Nope you didn’t. And you still don’t place the blame where it belongs: the Bushes and their neocon cronies (and Clinton/Obama of course) Instead you’re trying to discredit the guy who had nothing to do with that mess, and is actually trying to save the country!! And then you’re crying: he’s not a conservative. Thank god he’s not a conservative, that enables him to actually SEE the mess (cause many conservatives still don’t see it, and then you get to read articles like: “trying to explain the success of Trump”. The stupidity, they might as well write: trying to explain why objects fall to the ground. And then these know nothings accuse Trump supporters of low intelligence !) Conservatives have failed the country, there’s no denying that. If you’re an honest man (and I think you are) you should at least acknowledge that. If conservatives want to regain the respect they have lost, they should start with an sincere apology for failing the country.

Edit: for many years I was a conservative. But I didn’t leave conservatism, conservatism left me.

Matt_SE

Bush protests: the Tea Party. So yeah, I did protest him.

ymarsakar

MDR didn’t protest the Bush II policies here either, even though MDR says he was stalking Book for years.

ymarsakar

“and is actually trying to save the country!!”

Just like Global Warming green credits is going to save the world. It comes from the same weak impulses of human greed and vice.

ymarsakar

Fortunately for you, MDR, you’ll be one of those at risk for going the way of the dodo. Under conservatism people like me are chained and shackled to certain limits. Under nationalism/patriotism, we are not.

Besides, MDR was too afraid to say anything negative about Bush II here before. Takes a big boy to need Trump’s lies to make them feel brave enough to admit they think Bush II is still in power.

Every American in this nation, under the majority status quo, has failed the nation. And they will pay the price for it, which is why many have self exiled themselves. MDR may be too slow to get on that boat still.

ymarsakar

If America is a land of “do this or else you’re bad”, then it is no longer a free country based around a government of the people, by the people. Making people violate their conscience is no different than BLM and political correctness. Power does not justify such things.

Social consensus is always slanted towards evil rather than good. No matter what the stated justified aims.

The problem with democracies and why they become corrupt is that people become too interested in meddling with other people’s lives using political power, changing the world to suit their desires, rather than changing and improving their own souls.

Matt_SE

America has serious problems, etc. That’s true.
Trump supporters believe there’s no difference between Ted Cruz and Harry Reid, or at least they’re willing to treat them the same. Why do they do this? Because they are both cynical and lazy, and are not willing to put in the effort to find the truth.
Trump will lose in a landslide and Hillary will institute all of their greatest fears. Conservatives will not hold their nose and violate their principles for such a vile man.

ymarsakar

Hey Matt, if you got some time, you might want to check this page at the top. It’ll give you a contrast between how MDR argues against me vs other people here. No worries if it disappears, I got it saved.

neptun

I will vote for Trump. Not so much because I like him, but because I’m voting against Hillary.
If that means to some that I have no principles, sorry ’bout that.

Roy_Lofquist

I despair. Trump is without morals or scruples. He has repeatedly said that the measure of a man is how much money he has and that the the worth of a policy is how much money it makes.

I quote from Russell Kirk’s Ten Principles:

“The great line of demarcation in modern politics, Eric Voegelin used to point out, is not a division between liberals on one side and totalitarians on the other. No, on one side of that line are all those men and women who fancy that the temporal order is the only order, and that material needs are their only needs, and that they may do as they like with the human patrimony. On the other side of that line are all those people who recognize an enduring moral order in the universe, a constant human nature, and high duties toward the order spiritual and the order temporal.”

I can only hope that the Republicans come to their senses and block him at the convention. That might prove to be unpopular and lose an election. If they don’t they will have sold their souls for a mess of pottage.

MDR

Trump has never said “the measure of a man is how much money he has and that the worth of a policy is how much money it makes.” You’re letting yourself be manipulated by the neverTrumpers. Don’t let them, you’re better than this.

ymarsakar

To understand this chain of events, you must understand viral culture, the internet, and how cultural supremacy works/spreads.

I, for one, am NOT surprised at the efficacy of power backing Trump. Things are going, if not exactly, then very close to what I predicted and thought about years ago. Some surprises, true, but I adapted my models to account for internet rebels some time ago.

J K Brown

I’ve seen some All in the Family reruns when my aunt was watching recently. I noted how Archie is really the hero and correct one in the show. Meathead is loudmouth, but never a provider. Perhaps it is less a generation thing, but generational thing.

I’ve recently started watching The Carmichaels on NBC (Sunday night). It is a hilarious show along the lines of All in the Family, but without so much overt ideology.

Hmm, never thought of Trump as Archie Bunker, but I can see it.
More recent examples would be Jack Donaghe on “30 Rock” (Alec Baldwin) and Ron Swanson on “Parks and Rec” (Nick Offerman). In both shows, the cartoonishly conservative characters became beloved to the audience, and more importantly, they were the mentor and stable person upon whom the progressive female leads depended for career AND life advice. Oops!

Only children and conservatives think they have to speak the truth all the time. -MDR

MDR

Finally you make a good point, instead of rambling like a lunatic. Tip: quoting me is always a smart move. Anyway, Trump supporters know that you have to lie if you want to accomplish anything. Cruz supporters think you can get ahead in life by telling the truth. They’re like children. Not very savvy. That’s why Donald Trump said: “I’m conservative, but I’m smart too”.

ymarsakar

Got anything to say that you didn’t copy from the Alternative Right? You even got the ‘old generation wrecked stuff’ from other people, you have no idea how that actually came to be popular amongst the Red Pill crowd.

MDR

There you go again, rambling like a lunatic. I have no idea what you’re talking about.

ymarsakar

Was that 10 or 12 years you said you were stalking Book here and reading her stuff, to get an intimate relationship with her? Without her ever knowing you existed, that is.

Besides, we know you’re lying. That’s what you quoted after all.

MDR

Bookworm, this Ymarakar guy is a creepy lunatic and he’s scaring the normal people away. Perhaps it’s a good idea to block him?

ymarsakar

Are you refuting your own words here, MDR, or trying to cover them up? Because it looks like you’re avoiding the issue.

MDR

Bookworm, please help! Does this sound like a sane person to you? It seems this guy is obsessed with me, and he keeps talking about saviours and a moral authority and that I’m not going to be saved?? Very creepy. Bookworm please help!!!

ymarsakar

I’m not Bookworm, have you not noticed. MDR needs his baby bottle and safe spaces. But I don’t think his Mother knows where to pick him up now a days.

MDR: Ymarsakar has been a friend to this blog for many years. He thinks outside of the box and expresses himself bluntly, which can be unsettling, but I’ve learned over time that his political predictions are accurate and his observations about human behavior are even more accurate. No way will I ban Ymarsakar.

MDR

Thanks for the reply. He’s a friend of the blog so you’re not going to ban him, I totally understand that. In that case, perhaps a friendly suggestion for him to follow the rules of the comment section? Keep it friendly and only comment on topic is pretty reasonable, right?. My observation is that Ymarsakar is like the black hole of your comment section: every time he reacts to someone (very often something about a messiah or doomsday or something else which isn’t on topic) the discussion dies. And I don’t think that’s fair to the other people who leave a comment.
So thanks for hearing me out. It’s your blog, you’re the boss, and I totally trust your judgement. Cheers.

You will not need Valium, NMBK! – Repeat. 🙂 You will not need any of that. Instead, you have access to an amazing group of highly-informed and knowledgeable individuals who will share, and vent, along this seemingly endless maze of the next few months. No matter how dismal things may appear: I firmly believe, in one way or another, that this Great Country will survive!

Cecillia

You are most welcome, NM!! 🙂
That “ultimate wisdom” derives from the tomes of those who did leave behind Great Works of Wisdom. 🙂
Wishing you the most wonderful evening!

Notmybrotherskeeper2

Hey by the way, noticed in times past you might have a bit of an affinity for some of the new “Christian” music/writers out there, Chris August, etc.
Not sure if you’re familiar with Chris McClarney but I thought I’d share this with you anyway, he’s come up and played at our church a couple of times, but I really love this song!
…….the louder the better!